Everton 1-0 Fulham: Pienaar keeps Everton hopes of Europe alive

The South African's first-half strike added to Fulham's horrendous Goodison Park record of 19 straight defeats

Steven Pienaar of Everton celebrates after scoring the first goal (Photo: Getty)

Share

Get football updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

David Moyes must have known it would be a double celebration this weekend when Fulham arrived at Goodison Park.

The affable Scot celebrated his 50th birthday last ­Thursday but was keeping the champagne on ice until Saturday evening.

An Everton win against Fulham is, well, inevitable. The Toffees have now ­recorded 20 consecutive straight wins against their west London rivals.

It’s the best record that one top-flight club boasts over another, and from the opening whistle you could sense that Moyes and Everton ­expected nothing less than the victory.

Steven Pienaar’s strike ­secured a win that kept ­Everton’s march towards qualification for European football firmly on track.

“It was a terrific goal,” Moyes said. “We played some good football at times and didn’t always finish the moves off, but on this occasion we did and it was all nice ­intricate play and a nice ­finish.”

Of Pienaar he added: “Since his injury he’s been a little bit below but I thought he knitted us together and scored a good goal. That will do him the world of good.”

Everton made a bright start and duly got the goal their ­efforts deserved. Their pass master Leon Osman was at the centre of the move.

Pie in the sky: Pienaar scores the only goal of the game (Photo: Clive Brunskill)

He combined with Kevin Mirallas before feeding the ball out to the ever industrious Seamus Coleman who was ploughing down the right.

The young full-back showed his composure to pick out ­Pienaar, who notched his ­seventh goal this season.

Everton had taken just one point from their last two games, which had blunted the possibility of them securing a top four finish.

Yet, with Champions League football seemingly out of their grasp, the pride instilled by Moyes in this pugnacious side compelled them to produce a professional display.

Everton’s margin of victory should have been greater. By the interval they could and should have been three goals ahead, by the final whistle it could have been five. Willing, incisive, dominant and ­brimming with endeavour, they were everything Martin Jol’s side were not.

And when Dimitar Berbatov limped off after 29 minutes – presumably with some type of muscle injury – to be replaced by Mladen Petric, it seemed symbolic of the white flag his side have long hoisted up at Goodison. Fulham have 40 points and are safe but Jol will not want his players cruising to the end of the campaign in this manner.